


Alongside

by Keenir



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Almost Kiss, Gen, Loki's thinking "what's to decide?", Pre-Movie(s), this is set on one of the worlds Thor mentioned to Odin at the start of Thor 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-26
Updated: 2014-01-26
Packaged: 2018-01-10 02:22:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1153635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a world set alight, Sif (and Loki) are about to encounter more than just the enemy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alongside

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ala](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ala/gifts).



**Location: ésewulf** (continent)  
 **LOCATION: RHIA** (planet)  
 **Location: Midgard** (Realm)

Sif crouched, alone, within the ruins of a building, knowing the enemy was approaching. Thor was gone, summoned back to Asgard, and Loki had gone with him. "We fight alongside one another, we shield each other's backs," Sif muttered, reciting the oath she and Loki and Thor and some who were now dead.

But the Allfather summoned them back to Asgard, which meant the brothers had to first get to one of the few places on Rhia where the Bifrost could break through the atmosphere. _Which meant they left._

Everything around her was either burning to one degree or another, or could no longer hold a flame.

Girding herself, Sif readied herself to make one further - perhaps final - charge against the Cofgodas. "I fight for Asgard," she knew. And now she added a further part: "I live for Asgard," to add to part of her vow of loyalty sworn ages ago: "I will die for Asgard."

"Not quite yet," Loki said, slipping in through the one hole in the building that the enemy didn't have auto-fire aiming at.

"How did you get back here?" Sif asked of him.

"The way I left here, more or less. Any progress?"

"I think the Pentares commander is forcing the Cofgodas troops to push forward, tenuous as their tactical advantage is right now." Those longtime enemies, the Cofgodas and the Pentares, had set aside the enmities of billions of years, to come together in an alliance to seize control of their entire Realm. _More fools they, to think the Allfather would permit them to set foot upon Midgard-the-world any more than he permitted Vanir or Jotnar to do so,_ Sif thought with a smile.

"Overextending, or as good as," Loki said.

"You're back - alone. What happened?" Sif asked him.

"I turned around before we got to the Bifrost site. Appearantly, our father was going to give Thor a weapon," Loki said. "Something from the Vault, which is supposed to end this problem within the day."

Sif knew what was passing through Loki's mind, for it occurred to her as well: "Once Thor figures out how to use it."

Loki nodded, his dark look lightened by the fact that at least one person understood.

Particularly since that the Cofgodas and Pentares were rock-diggers whose technology revolved around flames and explosives, that wasn't encouraging, given what else they knew: _Everything has a learning curve._

"Would it not be toward our victory if you both had a weapon from the Vault?" Sif asked.

"What value is a victory which you do not attend?" Loki asked.

 _If there's layered meanings there, I'll deal with that later._ "That only partly answers my question," Sif said.

"I told you what happened - or what's scheduled to happen."

"But not why you returned so swiftly. The battlefield is broad, and your contributions would be welcome at any locale."

Loki's snort was milder than it would've been to anyone else. "I chose to return here. If you prefer, I can leave, _Lady_ Sif."

She glared a moment at him, before glancing around to see where the Cofgodas had snuck to. To Loki, "Use that bedamned Dwarf-given title once more, Loki, and I'll use you for body armor."

The prince looked like he was considering it.

"Not like _that_ ," Sif said.

"Ah, 'letting' me take the heat of their attacks while you storm towards them, ready to cut them all down to size," Loki said.

"Yes," she said as sweetly as possible while fireballs were screaming through the air around them.

"Or you could simply ask nicely," he said with a smile which was entirely too innocent to be believable.

"I'd rather know why you came back here," _to me, to my position in the battlefield._

"You're special," Loki said, sounding slightly uncomfortable.

 _The good prince, suddenly shying from attention?_ "I am unique," Sif corrected him.

"To me, you're special."

Sif was distantly aware that her jaw and her cheeks were far less stunned than the rest of her, but it didn't occur to her to worry, as the heat in her cheeks wasn't from any thermal attacks. "You -" and found herself leaning towards Loki. _Not standing over him or sitting on his chest, like my cousins do. Just my back's angled, and my head's angled, and -_ and stopped herself, making a face.

Loki's eyes only went wider when she made that irritated face. _She's already in my face, and that means its only a matter of time before she head-butts me again or knocks me aside._ "Asgard needs you alive to fight for it," Loki managed to say, trying not to sound like a strangled cat.

She sat up, nodding at that. "Glad to hear it. Now, shall we incinerate our foes?"

"We fight alongside, we shield one another's backs," Loki said.

"Always," Sif said, and they readied themselves to charge back out onto the battlefield, pausing only to frown in confusion as the sound of thunder broke through the dry skies.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, the _Cofgodas_ and _Pentares_ are real - tutelary deities for, respectively, the Anglo-Saxons and the Romans.


End file.
